25 Things You May Not Know About 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' | Moviefone 25 Things You May Not Know About 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' by Gary Susman Everyone thinks they know 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' the classic, urbane romantic comedy released 50 years ago today, on October 5, 1961. The film that cemented Audrey Hepburn's reputation as an all-time fashion icon, set the bar for every New York fantasy/romantic comedy from 'Barefoot in the Park' to 'Sex and the City,' and gave birth to a thousand Manic Pixie Dream Girls (or at least 25 others). Yet there's a lot you may not know about the movie -- who the real-life Holly Golightly was, how radically different the film might have been if 'Breakfast' author Truman Capote had gotten his way, why the Oscar-winning song 'Moon River' almost got cut from the film, which classic outfits Hepburn herself came up with, how many cartons of cigarettes the tobacco-loving characters smoked on-screen, and what Mickey Rooney has to say about his still-controversial performance. 1. Who was the real-life Holly Golightly?

So many women have been named as possible inspirations to Truman Capote -- including Gloria Vanderbilt, Oona Chaplin, writer/actress Carol Grace (who became Walter Matthau's wife), writer Maeve Brennan and model Suzy Parker -- that Capote called the whole speculation "the Holly Golightly sweepstakes." He claimed there was a real Holly, a woman who lived downstairs from him when he was a writer who'd just moved to New York in the early 1940s (like the autobiographical narrator of Capote's tale), though he never identified her by name. A New Yorker named Bonnie Golightly filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Capote claiming he'd based the character on her. 2. As George Costanza learned during a memorable 'Seinfeld' episode where he watched the film instead of reading the book for his book club, there are a lot of major differences between Capote's 1958 novella and George Axelrod's screenplay to the 1961 movie.

There's the setting (the 1940s, not the contemporary 1960s), the nameless narrator (called Paul in the film), Holly's age (she's still in her late teens in the story but played by 31-year-old Hepburn on-screen), Holly's fondness for marijuana (gone in the film). Holly's bisexuality (ditto), and the wistful, ambiguous ending (replaced in the film by a conventional romantic happy ending). Most of all, there's the sense many readers get that Holly is a professional escort, for taking money from wealthy men whom she sometimes sleeps with. In interviews , Capote described Holly not as a prostitute or golddigger but called her an American geisha girl. The film downplayed any suggestion of prostitution, with Paramount publicists issuing statements like , "The star is Audrey Hepburn, not Tawdry Hepburn." 3. Capote envisioned his friend Marilyn Monroe in the part, but her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, talked her out of it, saying the role's call-girl-like nature was bad for her image. Others supposedly in line for the role included Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine and Kim Novak.

Capote was a friend of Hepburn's but thought she was miscast. So did Hepburn herself, until director Blake Edwards persuaded her she could do it. 4. Blake Edwards pleaded on his knees with the producers not to hire George Peppard as the male lead. (Steve McQueen was considered but was unavailable.) Indeed, Peppard tried to play the role as a traditional matinee idol, not a vulnerable, flawed, naive young man. So said co-star Patricia Neal , who played Paul's sugar mama (known in the film as "2-E"). She and Peppard had been friends before the filming, but she wrote in her memoir that she was put off by his apparent desire "to be an old-time movie hunk." (Later, of course, Peppard would age into that more standard, macho kind of leading man, most memorably as the leader of TV's 'The A-Team.') 5. How did Edwards manage to shoot the memorable opening scene, in which a taxi rolls down an empty 5th Avenue at dawn, Holly gets out in front of Tiffany's and she nibbles on a Danish while gazing longingly through the jeweler's window? There are two conflicting accounts.

One said the scene was hampered by challenges -- a gaggle of gawkers longing for a glimpse of Hepburn, the star's dislike of Danishes, and an accident that nearly electrocuted a crew member. Yet Edwards said the shot was relatively easy, with the busy thoroughfare suddenly clearing up as if by divine intervention. "It was as if God said, ''I'm going to give you a break now, but for the rest of your career you're going to have to live off this one,'" he recalled. At a recent screening of the movie , Edwards' widow, Julie Andrews , said the director (whom she would marry nearly a decade after 'Breakfast') claimed he got the shot in one take. 6. For a movie so associated with Manhattan, very little of it was shot there. There were only about 8 days of location shooting, including inside Tiffany's, which opened on a Sunday for the first time in decades to allow filming, though 40 armed guards and several Tiffany's sales clerks were on hand to prevent pilferage. 7. The party at Holly's apartment, like much of the film, was shot on a Paramount soundstage.

A signature Edwards sequence -- he would go on to shoot memorable parties in the 'Pink Panther' movies, '10,' 'Victor/Victoria,' and of course, 'The Party' -- it took six days to film. The extras playing the guests were all friends and relations of the director, Andrews has said. According to studio notes, the revelers consumed plenty of real champagne, as well as 120 gallons of soft drinks, lots of party food (hot dogs, cold cuts, chips, dips, and sandwiches), and 60 cartons of cigarettes. Even that didn't generate enough smoke, so Edwards brought onto the set a smoker of the sort beekeepers use. 8. It's never explained why, at the party, Hepburn is wearing a gown made from a towel. A scene that was cut from the final release has her taking a bath when the party breaks out, and she's forced to improvise a gown. 9. What's the movie's connection to 'The Flintstones'? It's Alan Reed , who played gangster Sally Tomato. He was also the voice of Fred Flintstone. 10.

Buddy Ebsen had all but retired when he was persuaded to play Doc Golightly, Holly's estranged husband from down South. His brief performance is said to have landed him the role of Jed Clampett on 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' which made him more famous than ever and extended his career by decades. 11. Hepburn's husband, actor Mel Ferrer , seemed to exercise a near-Svengali-like control over his wife during the production. Neal recalled dining with the couple at their home, an evening that included a very light meal and ended practically before sunset; she remarked that now she knew how Hepburn stayed so thin. Ferrer also tried to influence his wife's performance, until Edwards took her aside and insisted that she treat him as the film's sole director. After that, Ferrer behaved like wet blanket; upon seeing the finished film, his only compliment to his wife was, "I liked your hat." 12.

Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer composed 'Moon River' with Hepburn's limited vocal range in mind, having heard her sing in 'Funny Face.' There was talk of having Marni Nixon dub her vocals (as she would do a couple years later in 'My Fair Lady'), but Edwards decided that Hepburn's own plain, unvarnished rendition of the song fit the character better. 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - 'Moon River' 13. "Over my dead body!" That was the response to a Paramount executive who wanted to cut the song from the film. It's not clear who said it, however. One account says it was Hepburn, another says it was the producers. 14. Hepburn worked with designer Hubert de Givenchy to craft her costumes for the film. One result: Holly's iconic little black dress, one of the most influential fashion choices in cinema history and a must for nearly every woman's wardrobe ever since.

(Yes, it was Coco Chanel, not Givenchy, who invented the little black dress, but it was the version Hepburn wore that made the garment a fashion staple.) Christie's auctioned the original dress in 2006 and sold it for $923,000 (one of the highest prices ever paid for a piece of movie memorabilia), with the money going to support the construction of a school for the poor in Calcutta. 15. Despite her reputation for elegance, Hepburn enjoyed relaxing in a turtleneck and jeans. Which is what Holly wears while lounging on the fire escape and singing 'Moon River.' 16. You'd never know from Holly's willowy figure that Hepburn had given birth to son Sean just three months before shooting. As a hobby, the new mom took up knitting. 17. Hepburn caught a cold after spending four days in studio-made rain shooting the final sequence. 18. The one part of the film that makes audiences cringe today is Mickey Rooney's performance as Holly's neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi.

Aside from the insult of having a non-Asian performer play a Japanese man by wearing yellowface makeup, Coke-bottle glasses, and buck teeth, there's also the performance's consistent sense of caricature and stereotype. In a 2008 interview , Rooney said Edwards hired him as a veteran comic actor and directed him to play the character broadly, and that if anyone had taken offense at his portrayal -- like the Asian-American activists who got a free public screening of 'Breakfast' in Sacramento yanked in favor of the more anodyne 'Ratatouille' -- it was news to him. "Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it -- not one complaint," Rooney said. "Every place I've gone in the world people say, 'God, you were so funny.' Asians and Chinese come up to me and say, 'Mickey you were out of this world.'" He added that if he'd known the performance would offend people, "I wouldn't have done it." 19. The film reportedly cost $2.5 million to make.

(Some $750,000 of that reportedly went to Hepburn, making her one of the highest-paid actresses of the era.) It earned $4 million in the U.S. upon its initial release and $14 million over its lifetime. 20. Consumers responded almost immediately to the film. Besides the black cocktail dress, Holly's coat and purse became widely copied. Animal shelters reported a rise in demand for ginger tomcats like Holly's cat (whose name, of course, was "Cat"). The soundtrack album went to No. 1 and stayed on the Billboard chart for two years. 21. 'Breakfast' earned Oscar nominations for Hepburn's performance, Axelrod's adapted screenplay, and for art direction. It won two prizes, for Mancini's original score and for Original Song ('Moon River'). They were the first two Oscars of Mancini's career; he'd ultimately win four times out of 18 nominations, and he would compose music for Edwards on many more movies, notably, the 'Pink Panther' films and 'Victor/Victoria.' 22. In 1966, there was a Broadway musical version, starring Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain .

It closed after just four performances, becoming one of those legendary flops that -- if as many people who claimed to have seen it actually did -- wouldn't have been a flop at all. 23. In 1969, ABC commissioned a pilot for a TV series, a sitcom called 'Holly Golightly' that starred Stephanie Powers and Jack Kruschen (as Joe the bartender, a character from Capote's novella that didn't make it into the movie). The network ultimately declined to pick up the pilot and make it into a series. 24. The property made it to the stage once more as a straight play in 2009, on London's West End. Anna Friel (the cult TV series 'Pushing Daises') played Holly. 25. In 1995, the band Deep Blue Something had a hit with a Hepburn-inspired song called 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.' The lyrics actually had more references to 'Roman Holiday,' but songwriter Todd Pipes thought the reference to the more iconic tale of Holly Golightly would make a better song title.

[Photo: Everett Collection] Breakfast at Tiffany’s | Silver Screen Stories Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1 Comment Holly and Paul on their way to see Sally Tomato Breakfast at Tiffany’s is without a doubt one of the most well-loved classics of its time. Fashion designers today are still trying to achieve that perfect “little black dress” look that Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly carries of so well in this movie. George Peppard is the leading man in this movie. He plays Paul Varjak, a struggling writer who meets and falls for his upstairs neighbor, a party girl named Holly Golightly. Varjak is fascinated by Golightly’s life and starts to spend time with her at her parties. But when he spends some time with her during the day, they begin a friendship of sorts. They even spend a whole day doing things the other has never done, such as visiting the public library, stealing from a 5-and-dime store, and of course visiting Tiffany’s. Along the way Varjak discovers Holly has been getting paid $100 a week to visit a jailed mobster named Sally Tomato and give him messages from another man.

Golightly doesn’t seem to care that the messages do not make sense to anyone and does not realize that she is more than likely passing along information about the mobster’s ongoing business outside of the jail. Buddy Ebsen also makes an appearance as Holly Golightly’s husband from Texas. It turns out that he had married Holly when she was very young. He did not accept when Holly annulled the marriage and ran away to New York. He follows after her and tries to convince her to come back home with him. But Golightly has adjusted to life in the big city and has already set her sights on marrying a man from her list of the richest men in America. She is able to snag one such man, José da Silva Pereira, and he proposes. Much to Varjak’s dismay, she accepts and plans to move to South America with José, even after Varjak proposes as well. But when Holly is arrested, José calls the engagement off. When Varjak bails her out of jail, Holly is devastated but tries to bounce back and pretends everything is fine. She is determined to skip out on her bail and go to South American anyway. Varjak tries to talk her out of it and she becomes angry.

In the famous scene, Golightly throws her nameless cat (Varjak had brought it along to cheer her up) out of the taxicab and into the pouring rain. With a change of heart, she then jumps out of the cab minutes later and goes in search of the cat. Varjask follows shortly and they share a moment when they find the cat and in effect, find each other. You have probably seen the famous shot of the 2 sharing a kiss while standing in an alley being soaked by the rain. This movie’s plot may not be exactly straighforward. It was honestly not one of my favorites when I first saw it. But unlike many movies, each time I watch it, I get a little more out of it each viewing. They film has truly become iconic, mostly because of Edith Head, one of Hollywood’s top costume designers, ability to capture the essence of Holly Golightly’s character. I think many females can identify with Holly’s search for a life of her own. And what woman does not want to simply stand and gaze into the windows at Tiffany’s?

Breakfast at Tiffany’s was nominated for 5 Oscars in 1962 including Best Actress, Best Writing (the movies was based on a novella by Truman Capote), and Best Music, Original Song (for the classic “Moon River” sung by Hepbun in the film). If you have not seen this movie, it really should be on the top of your list of films to see. Hepburn is fantastic as usual and Peppard is great as a leading man. Viewers will also enjoy an appearance by Mickey Rooney as Golightly’s Asian landlord. Holly after a long night…with Cat Looking for something special at Tiffany’s Like this: Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' & 'Two for the Road' Double Bill Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' & 'Two for the Road' Double Bill By Andre Soares Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's, Two for the Road screening.

(Image: Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's.) Tonight at 7:30 p.m., the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre in Santa Monica will be presenting two Audrey Hepburn movies of the '60s: Blake Edwards ' romantic comedy-drama Breakfast at Tiffany's and Stanley Donen's offbeat comedy Two for the Road. Breakfast at Tiffany's: enjoyable fluff In Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, a bowdlerized, desexualized version of the female heroine found in Truman Capote's original novel. At first, the role was reportedly intended for Marilyn Monroe , who would have been a better choice had the filmmakers actually bothered adapting Capote's novel. As it is, Breakfast at Tiffany's is conventional but enjoyable fare. George Peppard is the leading man, Mickey Rooney is a politically incorrect East Asian stereotype, and Henry Mancini's “Moon River” is the film's Oscar-winning song. Now, it's just too bad that Patricia Neal 's role wasn't larger; although Best Actress Academy Award nominee Audrey Hepburn is perfectly fine as the ditzy Holly, Neal would have easily stolen the movie. George Axelrod was credited for the adaptation.

Two for the Road: Stanley Donen at his best Written by Frederic Raphael, Two for the Road (1967) is a lesser-known (and less conventional) Stanley Donen effort. Audrey Hepburn supposedly had an affair with leading man Albert Finney during the shoot; if so, that helps to explain the solid on-screen chemistry between the two actors. Raphael's Oscar-nominated screenplay revolves around the various stages of a couple's relationship, from their initial meeting to marriage and its aftermath. Not necessarily in that order. A romantic comedy for adults, I find Two for the Road much superior to most of director Donen's better-known films (e.g., Singin' in the Rain, Funny Face). Audrey Hepburn, in particular, is outstanding as the youthful lovestruck woman who evolves into a disillusioned married matron. A must. The Aero Theatre is located at 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica. The information below is from the American Cinematheque website . BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S 1961, Paramount , 115 min, Dir: Blake Edwards.

When Audrey Hepburn's girl-about-town Holly Golightly meets handsome nice guy George Peppard, she begins to gradually rethink her anything-goes, high-living lifestyle. Adapted from Truman Capote's bestselling romance by director Blake Edwards (THE PINK PANTHER, THE PARTY) and featuring what is arguably Henry Mancini's greatest score. TWO FOR THE ROAD 1967, 20th Century Fox , 111 min, USA, Dir: Stanley Donen. Director Stanley Donen and screenwriter Frederic Raphael tell the story of the ups and downs of a marriage via an ingenious, twisty structure more akin to film noir than romantic comedy in this offbeat character study. Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn give two of the best performances of their careers as a husband and wife who can't stand each other - and can't stand to be apart. Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's photo via the American Cinematheque. If you liked the article Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' & 'Two for the Road' Double Bill, please recommend it to your friends. See floating share buttons on the left.

Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' & 'Two for the Road' Double Bill © 2004–2016 Alt Film Guide and/or author(s). Text NOT to be reproduced without prior written consent. Leave a comment about 'Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' & 'Two for the Road' Double Bill' Important: It's perfectly fine to disagree with our own and/or other commenters' views and opinions, but thoughtfulness and at least a modicum of sanity are imperative. In other words: Spammy, rude/abusive, bigoted, baseless (spreading misinformation), trollish/inflammatory, and/or just plain demented comments will be zapped and offenders may be banned. Additionally, bear in mind that a) harassment will not be tolerated b) links found in comments will generally be deleted. Most recent comments listed on top. 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' 1961 Movie Review | Hollywood Reporter Courtesy of Everett Collection 1961's 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' On October 5, 1961, the Audrey Hepburn classic, Breakfast at Tiffany's, hit theaters in the U.S.

The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below: An unusual love story, glamorous, sophisticated, with more than a touch of the bizarre. Breakfast at Tiffany's looks like a box office favorite. The Martin Jurow-Richard Shepherd production for Paramount has good names to add to its appeal, including an appealing performance by Audrey Hepburn. Blake Edwards directed. The film bears only a slight resemblance to the Truman Capote novelette on which it is based. Capote's work was a minor tragedy. The screenplay by George Axelrod turned the story into a romantic comedy. It has suggestions of grimmer moments, but they are played now only for contrast for what is, eventually, a happy ending. It will be disappointing to admirers of the Capote work, but they are few in number compared to those who will be attracted to and enjoy the film. Miss Hepburn plays the central figure, a woman like many others in Manhattan, who dresses well and dines well, living chiefly on the "ladies room" change given her by her escort. If the escort of the evening thinks a $50 "tip" pays for something later, this is not how Miss Hepburn plays it. She is, the picture makes clear, immoral but virtuous.

Her values undergo a change from her exposure to George Peppard, a young writer, who convinces her responsibility is less confining than her studied irresponsibility. Edwards' direction is smart; he has a way with fashionable comedy. Axelrod's treatment of the Capote story is convincing in the changes it has made although some of his devices are disappointing, being overly familiar. The script is not altogether neat. No justification or explanation is ever made of why Peppard is being kept by a wealthy lady, except that he is a writer and writers, presumably, get involved in things like that. Miss Hepburn is responsible to a great degree for the credibility of her complex character and gives a winning portrayal. Peppard virtually overcomes the script deficiencies in his character, because he is an exceptionally virile young leading man who achieves the aura of manliness without sweat. Patricia Neal is strong as Peppard's lady friend. Martin Balsam gives a wonderfully flexible portrait of a Hollywood agent. Buddy Ebsen has charm as Miss Hepburn's whilom husband. Mickey Rooney gives his customary all to the part of a Japanese photographer, but the role is a caricature and will be offensive to many.

Others helpful include Villanoga, John McGiver, Dorothy Whitney, Stanley Adams, Elvira Allman and Alan Reed. Franz Planer's Technicolor photography is beautifully balanced, the color for once the same tones throughout, whether exteriors or studio shots. Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson have done imaginative settings, with good set decoration by Sam Comer and Ray Moyer. Sound by Hugo Grenzbach and John Wilkinson is first-rate, and William McGarry's editing is excellent. Henry Mancini's score is another plus. — James Powers Breakfast at Tiffany's: 50 years on - Telegraph Classic Movies Breakfast at Tiffany's: 50 years on Moon River, New York, Audrey Hepburn and the Little Black Dress – a new book by Sarah Gristwood celebrates the 50th anniversary of Breakfast at Tiffany's By Sarah Gristwood In the movie-making business, it’s highly unusual that the first hour of the first day of shooting becomes the first scene of the film. But that’s how it happened on Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Audrey Hepburn is caught between takes while shooting the film's opening scene The script called for early-morning solitude: 'A moment of limbo as the street lamps fade in the face of the purple onrush of dawn.’ Solitude is rare in New York City at any hour of the day, but at 5am on Sunday October 2 1960, as the cab sped up Fifth Avenue, there was one brief moment when, the director Blake Edwards recalls, every car and every person seemed to melt away. 'It was as if God said, “I’m going to give you a break now, but for the rest of your career you’re going to have to live off this one.”’ The cab door opens. A girl gets out and goes over to gaze into the window of Tiffany’s. This scene, of course, was to go down in movie history. We have just had our first glimpse of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly. To many film critics Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a flawed picture, with its anomalies plain to see. To its legion of fans, on the other hand, it’s a hymn to love and to loneliness – to sex and to style.

What woman hasn’t got a little black dress and pearls in her imagination? What woman can’t hear the opening line of Moon River or 'Golly, darling’ spoken in Holly’s clipped, eager way? Related Articles The making of Holly Golightly 28 Aug 2013 The Holly Golightly of the movie is not quite the Holly Golightly that Truman Capote created. Capote’s novella starts out with the writer/narrator – a character who, in the movie, becomes George Peppard’s Paul – unable to let go of the question of what had happened to the girl named Holly. Is it true she had been spotted in Africa? This was, after all, a girl of whom almost anything was possible. A girl who, as the book describes her, read only tabloids, travel folders and astrological charts, 'smoked an esoteric cigarette called Picayunes: survived on cottage cheese and melba toast’. Capote’s heroine was also a girl who, unlike the Holly of the movie, clearly slept with men for money. 'I mean, you can’t bang the guy and cash his cheques and at least not try to believe you love him,’ she says.

The part of Holly Golightly is now so closely associated with Audrey Hepburn, it is hard to imagine that it could have gone another way. Jane Fonda had been mooted, Shirley MacLaine was a desirable possibility but was already committed elsewhere, and someone at Paramount was convinced Rosemary Clooney would be perfect. By the late 1950s, more­over, Capote’s famous stable of female friends included Marilyn Monroe as well as Elizabeth Taylor. And Capote saw Monroe in the part. 'Marilyn would have been absolutely marvellous in it,’ Capote would say later. 'She wanted to play it, too, but Paramount doublecrossed me in every conceivable way and cast Audrey. The book was really rather bitter, and Holly Golightly was real – a tough character, not an Audrey Hepburn type at all. Holly had to have something touching about her – unfinished. Marilyn had that. Audrey is an old friend and one of my favourite people but she was just wrong for that part.’ In none of Hepburn’s roles had there been anything remotely resembling a sex scene, not even when she played that other potential courtesan, Gigi, on stage.

She had been seen in love, but never in lust. But now, in the dawn of a new decade, Hepburn knew, according to her biographer Alexander Walker, she needed a movie 'that would speed her transition to roles with a newer take on [sexual] morality.’ She told Eugene Archer of the New York Times that she had hesitated a long time before accepting the part. 'It’s very difficult and I didn’t think I was right for it. I’ve had very little experience, really, and I have no technique for doing things I’m unsuited to. I have to operate entirely on instinct. It was Blake Edwards who finally persuaded me. He, at least, is perfectly cast as a director, and I discovered his approach emphasises the same sort of spontaneity as my own.’ When Hepburn made Breakfast at Tiffany’s she was 31, not 18, and already a style icon. But it is the look of this movie – the look she and the designer Hubert de Givenchy perfected together – that most encapsulates what we think of as 'Audrey style’.

The oversized sunglasses, the scarf trailing behind – and, of course, those layers of pearls that speak so clearly of Holly’s longing for a larger life. The movie’s chosen styles were Hepburn’s, too. Hepburn’s favourite private wardrobe throughout her life was jeans and a polo shirt or turtleneck sweater, the very thing Holly wears when she croons Moon River. Hepburn’s public costume was Givenchy. 'His are the only clothes in which I am myself. He is far more than a couturier, he is a creator of personality,’ Hepburn said. One outfit is particularly associated with Hepburn, and with Holly: the Little Black Dress. Part of the appeal of the Little Black Dress is that it can be endlessly adapted to suit mood, season or just time of day, and Holly rings the changes with expert versatility. There was a particular point to the elegance and, you might almost say, austerity of Hepburn’s dressing to play the morally ambiguous Holly. 'I always looked like such a good little girl,’ Hepburn said, 'and I always used that image to my advantage.’ New York was as much a player in the love story with Hepburn as was George Peppard.

In the original trailer, Paramount played up the mystique of the city, as the characters 'breeze through the glitter and shimmer of New York as it has never been captured before’. For a movie so associated with New York, it’s surprising how little was actually shot there. Eight days of location shooting took the film crew to the Central Promenade in Central Park, the exterior of the Women’s Prison of Detention on 10th Street, a brownstone house in the East 60s, and the steps outside the New York Public Library. 'And, of course, Tiffany’s,’ Eugene Archer wrote, 'which opened its door to a movie company for the first time with 40 guards and sales staff to keep an eye on the jewels.’ Patricia Neal, who played 2-E, the wealthy 'other woman’, had only one scene with Hepburn, and found her to be 'quite friendly’. Indeed, Hepburn invited Neal to her house in Hollywood for supper one night. 'Mel [Ferrer, Hepburn’s husband] was very strict with her during production, so the evening was one drink, a light meal and goodnight,’ Neal said. 'I don’t think the sun had even set by the time I got home.

But I sure know how she kept her looks and figure.’ The working relationship of both women, and indeed of the director, with Peppard was less than happy. 'George arrived on the set fully convinced of his star potential and felt that his character was the real centre of attention,’ the producer Marty Jurow recollected in his autobiography. Neal, Peppard’s old Actors Studio colleague, found a change had come over Peppard, whom she had once found divine and 'flirty’ – he had been spoilt. 'His character was written with a battered vulnerability that was totally appealing,’ Neal wrote in her autobiography, As I Am. 'But it did not correspond to George’s image of a leading man. He seemed to want to be an old-time movie hunk.’ Peppard wasn’t the only cross Blake Edwards had to bear. Years later the director spoke grimly of how Hepburn’s performance, in the early days of shooting, was being influenced by somebody other than him. 'We’d rehearse, then she’d come in the next morning and do something totally different,’ he said. Edwards didn’t name any names, but it’s clear to whom he was referring.

Before Breakfast at Tiffany’s, there had been difficulties about Hepburn’s reliance on her husband’s judgment. Multi-talented, hyperactive and, by inclination, a producer or director as much as an actor, Mel Ferrer could not accept that Hepburn’s performances were not really his business. 'Blake and Audrey got along instantly,’ Jurow said, but Ferrer 'seemed more bitter than ever, often making critical remarks about his wife.’ Finally, Edwards took Hepburn aside and told her she had only one director, saying, 'He may not be the best, but that’s what you’ve got.’ So either she needed to go along with the performance they’d agreed on together or he, the director, had to go. 'It stopped there,’ Edwards says. 'She relied on me from that moment on.’ The memorable party scene was 'pure Blake Edwards’, as Fay McKenzie, who played one of the guests, put it. On Paramount’s Stage Nine, he filmed it over several days of real champagne-fuelled festivity.

And it was a pretty expensive party for 1960, as detailed in the Paramount notes: 'For six days they consumed 20 gallons of tea, ginger ale and other soft drinks per working day, in addition to cold cuts, dips, sandwiches, hot dogs and potato chips. They consumed 60 cartons of cigarettes. This produced smoke, of course, but not enough for Frank Planer’s cameras. A bee smoker – the kind used by apiarists – was employed, creating billows of thick, choking smoke around the players’ heads.’ 'Everyone was specifically picked by Blake Edwards,’ the producer Richard Shepherd says. 'All the extras were actors or actresses he knew, or friends.’ Miriam Nelson, a friend who played the girl arguing with the man in an eye patch, says, 'We just walked around seeing what kind of crazy madness we could create.’ Capote’s novella was set in the early 1940s; his Holly knew the work of Kurt Weill and Cole Porter, and the songs from Oklahoma!. None of these would do for the movie, set 15 years later.

The choice of composer for this new material was Henry Mancini, whom Edwards had first met outside the barbershop on the Universal lot, and with whom he had worked on Peter Gunn. (They would go on to work with each other over and again, notably on the Pink Panther movies.) 'It was one of the hardest things I ever had to write, because I couldn’t figure out what this lady would be singing up there on the fire escape. It took me almost a month to figure it out,’ Mancini said. Meeting Hepburn was integral to his process. 'I knew how to write it the first time I met Audrey. I knew the exact quality the song would take on when she sang it in that slightly husky voice of hers.’ Richard Shepherd remembers that there was a lot of discussion as to whether Hepburn’s voice should be heard on the finished movie. There was discussion about using the voice of Marni Nixon, who would eventually dub her in My Fair Lady. But Edwards said, 'I want her to sing it, and I think she can.

It’s not a voice you want to go out and buy recordings of, but it’s right for that song.’ 'We previewed the movie in San Francisco and went to a nearby hotel to discuss the very good audience reaction. We all deferred to Paramount’s new president, who paced the room puffing a cigar,’ Mancini remembered. 'The first thing the man said was, “One thing’s for sure. That ----ing song’s got to go.”’ The movie opened on October 5 1961, and 11 days later, on October 16, came the first trumpeting of a success story – a first week’s 'smash opening’ of $178,000. Its appeal, however, was always going to be urban as well as urbane, and in the end, the movie’s box-office takings were a good rather than a great $4 million in the United States and a more impressive $6 million in Europe. Time would show that Capote never really warmed to the filmmakers’ version and his opinion, if anything, hardened over time.

'The movie became a mawkish valentine to New York City,’ he said, 'and as a result was thin and pretty, whereas it should have been rich and ugly.’ Soon after the movie’s release, copies of Holly’s coat and purse were everywhere on the streets, and animal shelters reported a huge rise in demand for ginger toms. The movie eventually won Oscars for its score and its song, while George Axelrod’s script and the art direction were also nominated as, of course, was Hepburn, who lost out to Sophia Loren in Two Women. In many ways, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a movie that should not be so adored today. Its manners and mores are long outdated – and yet people are still genuinely fascinated by it and by Hepburn. But the modern resonances go deeper. Nothing women have achieved since has made Holly’s dilemma look irrelevant. Her blend of fear and bravery, her struggle to reconcile commitment and freedom, still strike a chord today. Perhaps that’s the point about the Holly Golightlys of this world. They elude and confront and inspire and frustrate, and yet they are always lovable.

According to Marvin Paige, the film’s casting director, 'A lot of people have that kookiness, whether or not they let it show. A lot of people want to be Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’ This is an extract from 'Breakfast at Tiffany’s: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion’ by Sarah Gristwood (Anova Books, £20), available for £18 plus £1.25 p&p from Telegraph Books (0844-871 1515; books.telegraph.co.uk ) Start your free 30 day Amazon Prime trial» My favourite film: Breakfast at Tiffany's | Film | The Guardian My favourite film My favourite film: Breakfast at Tiffany's Lisa Allardice continues our writers' favourite films series with the sparkling escapist fantasy that can dispel any hint of the 'mean reds' Is this review perfectly groomed, or does it need restyling? Write your own here or strike a pose in the comments section below A 'lop-sided romantic' ... Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Photograph: Everett Collection /Rex Features My favourite film My favourite film: Breakfast at Tiffany's Lisa Allardice continues our writers' favourite films series with the sparkling escapist fantasy that can dispel any hint of the 'mean reds' Is this review perfectly groomed, or does it need restyling? Write your own here or strike a pose in the comments section below Thursday 29 December 2011 06.35 EST First published on Thursday 29 December 2011 06.35 EST Share on Messenger Close To admit that Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of your favourite films, these days, is to out yourself as the emotional and intellectual equivalent of a cupcake. The iconography of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly has become as neatly packaged and commodified as a duck-egg blue Tiffany's box – a world away from Capote's booze-and-nicotine-fuelled 1958 original.

A revisionist feminist take on Breakfast at Tiffany's would be as unconvincing and ill-advised as Mickey Rooney playing the Japanese Mr Yunioshi – there's no getting away from the fact (although Hollywood tried) that Holly takes money "for the powder room", and that she is in many ways the creation of a series of Svengali-like men. And yet, how many cinematic heroines can you think of who are truly free-spirited – however wounded and vulnerable – rebels? Fellow southern belle Scarlett O'Hara had similar grit and would surely have taken New York by storm had she been born in a later age, and decades later Thelma and Louise launched themselves into a hopeless future with the same reckless abandon, but in between there are few such dazzling female characters as Holly. And for the most part, in the film at least, she gives the rats and super-rats a good run for their money. From the The perfect Holly Golightly ... Audrey Hepburn in the film of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features opening credits to the lingering final shot, the film is all about Holly – or, more precisely, Audrey .

For once the love interest is a man, and he isn't even that interesting. Despite this being his only memorable role (the, ahem, A-Team notwithstanding), George Peppard is as smooth and bland as a bar of soap: the cat has more personality . The other characters (like the addition of 2E, played by Patricia Neal, to make everyone feel a little more comfortable with Holly's means of making a living) are mere foils or props for the heroine. But this, like so much else (apart, of course, from the ending) is faithful to Capote's original: the unnamed writer narrator, remember, has no story of his own to tell until he meets Holly. The film is the sparkling champagne to the novella's dirty martini (which led Mailer to crown Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation"), and each have their distinct pleasures. Where the mean reds smoulder dangerously at the edges of the pages, like Capote's endless cigarettes, the film is drenched in sunshine (we know it's not far away even in the final downpour).

Although there are dark moments: anyone who can keep a dry eye as Paul regretfully closes the door on a desperately grieving Holly has a heart of "cold macaroni". H No Merchandising. Editorial Use Only Mandatory Credit: Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection / Rex Features ( 911644a ) 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - Film - 1961 'BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S' FILM 1961 AUDREY HEPBURN STILL FILM STILLS ACTOR ALONE FEMALE PERSONALITY 4917111 Photograph: Courtesy Everett Collection / Re olly's determination to put a brave face (full make-up, darling, even in bed) on things makes her an old-fashioned heroine. Give a girl lemons and she'll make a martini. As her name card says, she goes lightly: who hasn't dreamed of just putting "Travelling" in their out-of-office message?

In the opening scene, from our first glimpse of her through the doorway in eye-mask, tasselled earplugs and man's dinner shirt, to the alligator shoes and trademark sunglasses of the final transformation for her trip to Sing Sing, Holly is all about dressing up. Holly/Audrey has become synonymous with the little black dress, but what the LBD stands for is wearing something that means, no matter what you're feeling inside, you can face the world with confidence. But it isn't just that dress. New York – which undoubtedly looks great – is a catwalk for Holly/Audrey's much-imitated wardrobe. The orange coat and bucket hat combo she wears on her day out with Paul; the Burberry-style mac to see Doc off at the bus station; and never has a woman made a turtle-neck look so effortlessly desirable. Holly is the ultimate material girl; like Madonna constantly reinventing herself. As OJ Berman says, in just one of the exchanges lifted straight out of the book (sadly, I can quote a lot of them): "She is a phony.

But… she isn't a phony because she's a real phony." It is this real phoniness – as well as Holly's warmheartedness — that the film captures so well. Capote was very specific as to Holly's sartorial tastes. "She was never without dark glasses, she was always well groomed, there was a consequential good taste in the plainness of her clothes, the blues and greys and lack of lustre that made her, herself, shine so." Hepburn, in other words, who shines as if lit from within: the only thing on which director Blake Edwards strayed was the leading lady's hair colour. Famously, Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the role – thank goodness she turned it down. Breakfast at Tiffany's with cleavage would be an altogether different film. Legendarily beautiful and sophisticated, Hepburn might at times be a clothes horse, but she's never a sex object and this is not a story about sex.

(That's just how Holly – and Paul – pay the bills.) Sometimes characterised as a "female Gatsby", Holly, to me is rather closer to Nancy Mitford's Linda Radlett from The Pursuit of Love: two fatally "lop-sided romantics", who guard their freedom as fiercely as they give their heart away easily. (And, most importantly, neither is ever a bore.) In the harsh black-and-white world between book covers, they pay the price for their dreams of finding both love and independence. And so to the Hollywood ending . But close readers of the novella need not be outraged: the director only took the liberty of making the narrator's final vision – of the cat, and Holly, finally at home – a reality. The novella is all about escape and the film is escapism at its best. When my own world starts taking on an a mean tint, playing it can be as reassuring as a trip to Tiffany's. And no – I don't watch it eating a box of chocolates and painting my nails. But I might cry – a little. Richard Williams continues our writers' favourite films series with Godard's vision of a future state that has outlawed love Published: 28 Dec 2011

Question: Who was the leading man in the film 'Breakfast at Tiffany's"?
Answer: GEORGE PEPPARD